Dr. Joseph A. Bailey, II, MD., FACS

Nature’s Rhythms and its Rational flowing out Mathematics-like Music are Circumstantial Spiritual Truths knowable in the Physical World. Each aspect is based upon Vibrations. Vibrations, by means of the relation of one to others, produce sound effects and whose waves are formed into Music. Ancient Africans knew the underlying vibrations of Sound Waves can create, enhance, maintain Harmony or destroy the Disharmony of the structure of all things and events in the Cosmos. Of the three elements of Music—i.e. Rhythm, Melody, and Harmony–Rhythm was not only the beginning of Music but was also its most important element.  To it, Primitive (the first humans) Africans would sit and stomp their feet–or clap their hands while moving about–or strike two pieces of wood together in dancing. Later, they stretched the skin of an animal across hollowed out tree trunks to thereby make the first formal drum. By cutting a slit in one surface of the log, they fashioned TALKING DRUMS so its beat could serve in a Spiritual and daily living manner. Drum beats were first synchronized with the physical body’s heart beats. But then, as drum-speed rhythms increased, so did the people’s heart beats move faster in order to remain synchronized. In Spiritual realms, Primitive African Shaman considered the Drum as a symbol of Primordial Sound. “Primordial”: (1) means first in time, original, elementary (at a basic level) from being derived from God’s Substance (androgynic protoplast containing the Spiritual Elements of Unconditional Love, Truth, Reality, and the Natural); (2)–refers to “the seed of itself” in a human’s pre-birth Natural "Wild" Mindset; and (3) is “Black” and “Dark”—both made by, and associated with God. Hence, the Drum Sound was thought of as a vehicle for “The Word” (i.e. God’s Universal Reason). The Ancient African Bible says the “Divine Logos”–the Verbum– "The Word"–is itself the power of the Divine Presence. Since Drums were made of “the Tree of the World,” “The Word” was said to adhere to the Drum in a Mystic sense. Hence, Drums were viewed as, among all musical instruments, the most pregnant with mystical ideas—i.e. referring to the Astral “Heart”.

            Ancient Africans said the “Heart”—the seat of the Soul—is the most important factor deciding the experiences of the Spirit. This "Heart"–used in a figurative sense for the “deepest recesses of the human Psyche" (African, 'Psyche' = Soul)—is deemed to be: (a) the symbol of the Mind and Conscience (which partially controls ones thoughts); (b) the seat of ones Spirit, Nature, Mind, Feelings, Senses, Emotional Body, and Creative Power; (c) the place of ones Moral/Spiritual nature; (d) humans’ center or ‘residence’ where life issues are determined”; (e) the location of the very “Subtle Mind” whose powers penetrate the universal nature of Reality; and (f) the center indispensable to the body for eternity and therefore it was the only viscera left in African mummies. A Mystical state is an awareness of being interrelated with all Cosmic Organisms and thus having access to God—i.e. a human’s ultimate reality of things by bathing in the union of the Divine nature from which ones thoughts begin. Here, humans are neither distinguished nor distinguishable because all things are “One”—meaning the ‘Oneness’ foundation of potentiality from which all ‘Things’ emerge (the Path). Entering this Inner World begins “Knowing Thyself”—a primordial Experience of participating in the same Spiritual Spaces–the setting for experiences of mystical Compassion (all sharing the same Spiritual Space). 

Black People throughout history have known this Spiritual Space to certify their Primordial Interconnection. Thisrealm of Darkness is itself dazzling light inside Cosmic and humans’ Unconscious—both interpenetrating and occupying the same “space.” Its "Blackness" symbolizes “Know Thyself” blindness by ones Soul Sunshine splendor—as the pre-dawning of ones Divine Conscious Foreground which is discovering what is natural within oneself. That Foreground, being Circumstantial (Spiritual), means its contents are vital as Sources for humans' recognition of the significance of Drum beat repetition patterns. That Dawn of ones mental state guides the searching of the un-manifest in each potential Realistic Possibility within ones Selfhood. Resultant conveyed messages are more of a special kind of language than a body of knowledge–dealing with relations of ones “ME/WE” Mission concepts to each other and without their relation to experience. These promotes a vision of Certainty in Unconditional Love underlying what is natural in the Cosmic Organism.  jabaileymd.com; JABLifeSkills; Theievoice.com